David’s AW News: A Buddha on the Mountain

Greetings once again from Spain... Hope you are well and enjoying the Summer..

Well, this is not something you see every day...

One of our customers has installed one of our Giant Garden Buddhas on a mountain top in Slovakia. We are told all planning and permissions were correctly obtained, which is always nice to hear. More on that later, but I thought it made a pretty wonderful picture to start this week’s newsletter.

...but not for much longer. Next week I will be packing my bags and heading off again. It is back on the road, back to visiting suppliers, back to hunting down new ideas and hopefully bringing you the next wave of interesting products.

One thing I have learned over the years is that new products do not find themselves. You have to go looking.

Last week I was telling you about flirting with danger in Mijas, the almost-lost Spanish ID card, and my close encounter with the famous mustard scam. If you missed it, you can catch up here. 

This week has been less dramatic, but actually very important.

I have been working closely with Raul and his team in Bali. And Tomas and Toni on some of the boring background stuff that keeps AW moving forward. For the last couple of years we have been slowly moving our websites away from our old, dated platform onto our new system. It has been a massive job. Thousands of products. Thousands of images. Descriptions, prices, stock feeds, customer accounts, checkout testing, translations and all the little details that nobody notices unless something goes wrong.

This week was historic because the last of our five Spanish websites finally moved across to the new platform.

That might not sound exciting, but it is a big step. It means we are now in a much stronger position to keep improving the websites, adding better tools, making ordering easier and giving you more useful ways to find and sell products.

Sometimes the important work is invisible.

Talking of historic...

Today also marks six years since the AW Inferno, when our main warehouse in Sheffield burned down on a hot, muggy summer night following an extraordinary, mystical chain of events captured on CCTV.

It was one of those moments that could have finished the business.

But it did not. Staff came together. Customers supported us. Suppliers stood by us. We rebuilt, restocked and somehow came back stronger.

If you have never read the story, you can find it here: https://www.awartisan.eu/history-aw 

Anyway, back to the here and now.

Rodrigo tells me his “Hydration Break” Instagram reel has now had almost half a million views.

Half a million! See here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZ-Lm6rI9YG/

Apparently watching people stop work for a drink of water or tea in the heat is exactly what the internet needed this week. Still, with the weather we have all been having, hydration breaks are no joke.

And speaking of heat, parts of the UK have again been hotter than Spain. So perhaps I should stop pretending I am suffering down here.

The sunshine is also good news for camping, garden centres, festivals, outdoor living and all those shops that do well when people finally remember they have a garden, a tent or a campervan.

Because BIG NEWS, Happy Holi-Daze has started - July is the Month for Holidays.

We are calling it Happy Holi-Daze!  with new offers everyday and FREE SHIPPING in July.

Free shipping begins, and from Monday there will be fresh offers coming daily. So keep checking the site because Rodrigo and the team have been busy lining up some very tempting summer deals.

We also have some very welcome back-in-stock arrivals: Mixed Gemstone lines, Gemstone Magic Pendulums, Mini Gemstone Trees.. 

These are always strong sellers. Gemstones have that lovely mix of beauty, meaning and impulse appeal. They work in gift shops, crystal shops, garden centres, wellness stores and tourist shops. Small products, good stories, strong margins. 

Now back to that Buddha. I love this.

A product that began life with artisans in Indonesia, travelled through the AW system, and now sits quietly looking out across a Slovakian landscape. That is the magic of this business.

Most days we think we are moving boxes. A pallet here, a container there, another order out the door before the courier arrives.

But actually, these products go into real homes, shops, gardens, studios, spas, retreats, hotels and sometimes, amazingly, mountain tops.

They become part of someone’s space. Part of someone’s story.

That is why we keep travelling. That is why we keep rebuilding websites. That is why the warehouse teams work so hard at month end. That is why we keep searching for new products, better suppliers and more interesting ideas. Six years ago, after the fire, it would have been easy to think the story had ended.

But here we are.

New websites. New products. New teams. New videos. New offers. A viral hydration break. A Buddha on a mountain. And next week, me back on the road again.

Finally, for our UK customers, Monday morning may be a little slower than usual. England play Mexico in the World Cup at 1am, and pubs in England and Wales are being allowed to stay open until 5am.

Good news for football fans. Possibly less good news for Monday productivity.

Good luck England, enjoy the sunshine, drink plenty of water (or Mandala leaves tea), and thank you as always for being part of the Ancient Wisdom journey.

Have a great weekend.

David
Ancient Wisdom